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HVB results said to aid its bid for UniCredito

HVB on Wednesday overcame a potential hitch to its planned takeover by Italy's UniCredito, with quarterly results that were in line with expectations.

The Munich-based bank generated a second-quarter net profit of â‚¬230m ($277m) in the three months to the end of June, up 9% on a year earlier, in spite of a sharper than expected slump in trading income.

Analysts believe the result was solid enough to cement support from UniCredito's shareholders, who on Wednesday began three days of meetings to approve the acquisition.

HVB is the target of a â‚¬16bn bid by Italy's Unicredito Italiano. The deal, if completed, would mark the largest cross-border euro-zone bank acquisition.

HVB's pretax profit, the result most analysts use to measure performance, edged up 1% to â‚¬406m from â‚¬402m. Operating profit increased 12% to â‚¬412m from â‚¬367m. The bank's Bank Austria Creditanstalt subsidiary contributed â‚¬244m in operating income.

Net interest income increased 2% in the second quarter to â‚¬1.49bn from â‚¬1.46b, while loan-loss provisions fell 21% to â‚¬326m.